Searching for Freedom
by LadyShrin
Summary: A young Vegeta searches for lost members of his race.


I don't own anything related to Dragonball Z. This is just fiction written for fun. The OC in the story are themed around mythology, and I don't think the rights to that belong to anyone.

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No empire can truly exist in a vacuum. Peaceful planets existed even within the empire of Freiza. After all, slaves and farmers were needed to feed his armies, and the most efficient way of accumulating wealth and advancing weaponry technology was actually to allow a private sector to do most of the research.

These were the planets Vegeta often found himself visiting when he required information. He found himself requiring some of that today. It'd been less than ten years since his home world had been destroyed, yet rumours still occasionally surfaced about saiyans that had survived. Certainly, to assume that _all_ saiyans save himself and Nappa had perished would be foolishness. There were the fools that had been sent away for having power levels too low for the saiyan lifestyle, for one. There had also been a number of teams out in the field at the time, although Freiza had deliberately chosen a time when that number of teams on mission was low.

Vegeta was tracking one such team now. Despite being what would've been known on Earth as a 'teenager', he was a soldier and expected to behave as an adult. That had been his life ever since he was handed over to that monster. Nappa still coddled him at times, taking his responsibilities as caretaker seriously, despite the fact Vegeta had been trying to break him of that habit for years. "I am the prince of Saiyans, I will not be treated as a child!" That was one of his memories, at the tender age of ten, he shouted this at a Nappa insisting on accompanying him on some mission, his treble voice shaking with anger. What could be done? The few saiyans left under his command needed to learn respect for their prince, how else could he hope to build an army that would someday destroy Freiza?

Well, whatever. He was getting side-tracked by memories, staring at a seedy bar where no child belonged. This is where his contact had told him to meet, believing him to be an adult, considering his rank within Freiza's army. He approached the door, about to enter when he was stopped by some sort of guard. "We don't allow children in this establishment," said the guard. Vegeta frowned.

"Oh? Are you sure?" he remarked, crossing his arms. "You wouldn't say that if you knew who I was." He pointedly gestured towards his armour, which was standard issue for all members of Freiza's army.

The man leaned over him. "Look, we know the reputation of you soldier boys, but I'm sorry. Especially if you're on duty, I don't want your captain to come barging in here and complaining we let you get drunk. Especially since you're a kid. Get lost before I make you."

Vegeta bristled. _Nobody_ spoke to him in that manner, except his superiors within Freiza's army, and that was usually accompanied by the usual 'monkey boy' insults. Even here, he didn't get the respect he was due. He was ready to put a hole in the irritating guard, but no. If word got out that he was here, it'd certainly mean another beating from Freiza, at least, and a commotion would probably cause his contact to rabbit, anyhow. He backed down. "Fine,"_ I'll get you someday..._ he muttered the last part under his breath.

He wandered down an alley next to the bar and looked around. Nobody here. There was a door at ground level, and a few windows on the second floor. Windows sounded more promising than breaking through a locked door, so he flew up and peeked through.

There was a bedroom here, decorated in gaudy shades of pink. The room was currently occupied by a man and a woman of some humanoid species. They were very close together under the bedsheets, and making strange noises. Vegeta was just old enough to understand what they were probably doing together and, blushing, he turned away quickly. Window was no good. He'd have to try the door.

The door didn't appear to have a visible handle on this side. Was it supposed to be an emergency exit? How glad Vegeta suddenly felt, to be unrestricted by the weakness of powerless flesh. In any emergency, he'd just blow a hole in the wall and leave. No need to stay and burn in case of a blocked exit during a fire. Mental meanderings aside, he wondered how to crack the door. Preferably without causing a ruckus. He continued wondering this when, to his surprise, the door opened of its own accord.

A man in a soldier's uniform and a woman walked out of the building, discussing some distasteful act and smelling heavily of alcohol. While the two of them had their backs turned, Vegeta slipped through the door like lightning. He found himself in an empty hallway. Thankfully, this hallway wasn't painted in those same gaudy shades of pink. He looked around to orient himself.

To his left, there was a doorway. Through the window in the door, he could see a stairwell that led upstairs and presumably to the 'bedrooms' on the second floor he'd discovered earlier. No need to go that way. Down the hallway, he saw doors to the left side. At the end of the hall, a turn that led into a darkened room, to the right, and a sign indicating the location of some bathrooms. That darkened room was probably where he wanted to be, so he hurried there.

Seeing a man matching the description of his contact, he quickly sat down in the seat right next to the man, hoping the bouncers wouldn't notice him. Thankfully, the seat was in a dark booth near one of the corners of the room. The man turned to look at him.

"Hair that looks like a black flame, a uniform of Freiza's army, a tail bound around your waist... I admit I expected an adult... you seem to be resourceful enough, to sneak in here without causing a ruckus. I like that."

Vegeta snorted. He examined his contact. The man wore a cloak and a dark beard and his skin appeared to be a particularly bright shade of red. At least he fit in with the decor. One uncomfortable silence later, the man spoke again.

"...I assume you'd like to get right down to business then?"

"..That's right. Tell me about these saiyans you know about and where to find them."

"Listen, boy. That group up there is discussing the latest rumour right now."

Vegeta listened.

"...what did they call themselves... that's right! Three women, who called themselves the 'Three Fates'. One, an older woman, but she fights like a demon. The second, she draws you in with her beauty and grace. The third, hers is the only face that might be friendly, so she's the one that weakens defences with her subtle manipulations."

"Oh yeah, I heard of them. I heard they used to be part of Freiza's army, until... well, _something_ happened. What was it?"

"They must've done something so horrible even they couldn't keep those three on."

"Nah, that's impossible. I heard they turned traitor."

Several voices piped up. "Really? Traitor?"

"Yeah, I heard Freiza sent men to kill them, but all he got back was body parts."

"Tell us the story!"

"Alright, this was how I heard it...

Zulina, Turuna, Suasha had always been together. Turuna and Suasha were twins, and Zulina was their mentor. In the hard times since planet Vegeta had been destroyed, they'd watched each other's backs and protected each other. If they hadn't been together, none of them would have survived.

Zulina had spent many years fighting in the field, and earned a name for herself. Saiyan society made no differences between male and female warriors, although it was more common for men to take up the lives of soldiers. Zulina was one of those women who'd chosen the warrior's path. She'd taken no husband, never knowing when she'd die on a mission, never wanting to leave someone behind. Those men she worked with, those were comrades, never lovers. Such was bad for team camaraderie, she thought. She'd devoted a life to fighting for her people, and that was precisely where she was happy to be.

Her hard work eventually earned her the position of team captain, where she learned the value of hard decisions. It'd happened that she had to choose to leave a soldier behind so the unit might live on, and it was always a painful decision to have to make. She remained there for only a few years before choosing to return to the academy for youngsters, teaching young soldiers to fight. It took only one bad decision in the field to bring her to that role... she'd always feel guilty, watching her team die because of her decision again and again in her dreams...

It was at the academy that she was assigned two promising young female twins to teach. Turuna and Suasha. The two of them worked well in unison, coordinating their actions almost unconsciously: a perfect match for paired attacks. She taught them for years. Through the two, she found healing for her own spirit, leading them on their first successful mission as a group of three.

Turuna and Suasha had been almost identical as youth in both spirit and body, and yet as young saiyan women they became quite different. Turuna seemed outwardly gentle, almost motherly. She adored her sister and always helped out when one of the others became sick or injured. She faked her own strength to not worry her team when she was herself sick or injured. And so she was gentle, with those she was allied with. To her enemies, her gentleness was a cover for her subtle nature. She could trick the enemy with a plot that allowed them to seem as friendly aliens, simply in need of a little help. She would then coldly eliminate them.

Suasha had none of the motherly attitude of her twin, but instead was filled with a youthful exuberance, which could often be tempered into what appeared to be sexual desire, although she was far from promiscuous. She would trick the enemy with desire, drawing them in with her beauty. With her family and friends though, she was often the life of the party, the spirit that kept their morale high when the going was tough.

And Zulina, as always, was the voice of wisdom and experience. She guided these two sisters through their first mission abroad, to a small planet on the fringes of Cold Empire space. This world was a simple, friendly world, with a clean atmosphere. The people here hadn't even figured out space flight yet, and fought primarily with steel weapons. How primitive. And yet, the people here also were known to know some form of 'magic', which was why the usual saiyan cleanup team was being called. Any species that might potentially have energy attacks that'd overwhelm common soldiers required a special team.

Turuna worked her magic on them, all right. This friendly world fell like wheat before a scythe to her charms. It was simple, and within the three-day allotted mission time, the planet was easily ready for use by the Cold Empire. Pleased with the success of their first mission as a team, they returned home... only to find a lot of space dust where home used to be.

Well, what now? Return to a planet with a military base on it? No. Something is definitely not right here.

They stopped at a neutral planet only a few light years away and soon found themselves in a bar much like the one Vegeta now sat in, listening to this story. From here, they gathered the rumour that Planet Vegeta had been destroyed by a meteor, and the parallel one that Freiza had destroyed it himself. Well, which to believe?

Zulina, in her wisdom, knew that a meteor would pose no threat to the planet. She knew that if King Vegeta hadn't been powerful enough to blow one up, someone in his court certainly had the power. She also knew Freiza; he would certainly view growing saiyan power level averages as a threat to his own power. Perhaps he'd even heard the legend of the Super Saiyans and had feared that, but who could tell? Men with power feared nothing except losing their power, and that was motivation enough.

Now that they had an idea of what might be the truth of it, the question remained: what to do about it? The answer seemed clear: fight back! There was just one problem.

Their team consisted of one aged saiyan and a pair of recruits. How were they supposed to fight an entire army, including the powerful Freiza? The answer to that was a lot more complicated. An underground certainly existed, but it may be hard for a trio of saiyans to become involved. Who would trust them? Perhaps they could organize their own targets to strike, but how to gather intelligence to plan the appropriate targets? Saiyans would almost certainly be a target for Freiza's men.

One answer might be to strike at random until somebody's attention was gained... so long as Freiza didn't send anything along that they couldn't handle. A little random destruction might cause instability, after all. It seemed the most fun, so that's what ended up happening. And so the strike team called "Three Fates" was born.

Their most recent target had been a scouter production facility. That had gotten some of the wrong attention, unfortunately for them. Freiza had sent a small army after them, which had been slain down to the man. The three of them had amused themselves by sending ships filled with severed body parts to Freiza's current base for awhile. That hadn't helped with their notoriety any, so they'd been forced to go underground.

"Woah, any idea where those lovely ladies are now? I wish I could meet them..."

"No. You don't. You really don't."

"Pshaw, what do you know? I bet they're beautiful!"

"I bet they'd kill you for insulting them."

Vegeta stopped listening at this point, as the conversation seemed to be degenerating to which member of the twins they would bet was hotter. And Vegeta, being only on the verge of puberty, didn't entirely understand just yet.

"Did you hear what you wanted to hear, boy?" He turned back to the man in the cloak, and shook his head.

"I want to know where they are."

"Ah, well, surely you know how the world works by now, boy. Nothing is free." Vegeta snorted, and threw down some money on the table. "That's m'boy. Now, they can be found in this very city. Their base is in the sewers. You must take the entrance in the alley behind this building. Follow the path right. Now, good luck." With that, he got up and left, leaving Vegeta once more on his own.

He stood up himself, glancing around to make sure no one important could see him, and left via the entrance he came in. That couple was no longer there, luckily for them. Glancing around, he spotted the sewer entrance. It seemed to be nothing more than a grate leading underground. It was, however, sealed by an energy barrier, which would do a lot of damage if he simply ignored it and slipped through.

These things always had a power box nearby, so Vegeta searched around for it. He found it, a block away, down the main road. That wouldn't do at all. He slipped into the nearest alley... there was no helping it, he'd have to destroy that box, and it would make a big explosion. He focused his power into a small ball, and sent it off towards that box.

He was already flying over to the alley with the grate he needed when it struck. The explosion shook the atmosphere, and caused a ball of flame that shot higher than the 2-story buildings common to this area of town. He swore, hoping nobody was searching around with a scouter. He slid into the grate, for once thankful for his small stature, as it had been a tight fit. He flew down the tunnel, wrinkling his nose at the scent. Oh, excellent place for the prince of saiyans, he thought to himself. How they'd laugh at him in a sewer. They'd think it just where he belonged.

Vegeta had had no idea how far down this tunnel their base would be, and was pondering this when he encountered three individuals speeding towards his location. They stopped in front of him, blocking his path.

"You halt right there, minion of Freiza! How the hell did you find our base!" asked one of the younger ones.

"Wait, I'm not your-"

"Freiza sends children to hunt us now! I thought he had more respect than-"

"Wait." The oldest one held up her hand. "That hair..."

Silence fell over them as the oldest warrior examined Vegeta. After a moment, she approached him and plucked at his tail. "You... are you Prince Vegeta...? Son of the old king?"

"Yes! Yes, that's what I've been _trying_ to-"

"I'd heard you still lived, but I never thought my hopes might be realized..."

"Yes yes, you're damn lucky, now let's get the fuck out of here before some guards come!" Vegeta growled, glancing around worriedly.

"Yes lord, let's hurry out of here."

Vegeta had had some vessels prepared in case he found what he'd been looking for, somewhere outside the city limits. He was glad that there were enough ships for everyone. As they flew, he programmed a destination into their computers on his control device: he had a safe house where he kept rescued saiyans for the time being, until he figured out what to do with them all. That would do for now.

They were just about there when the local base commander arrived.

"Get into those ships and out of here!" yelled Vegeta.

"No, let us fight!" cried Suasha, full of passion as usual.

"Forget it!"

"I want to fight!"

"Your prince is commanding you to _get out of here!_" Vegeta eyed Suasha sulking as she got into her ship. Soon, the three of them were speeding off to their destination. It was just him and the base commander.

"Sooo, Prince Vegeta, helping known rebels. I guess it's to be expected, isn't it?" _Tch.._thought Vegeta. "Monkeys always need to help monkeys, or so I hear. Our lord Freiza is going to be so disappointed with you."

"Yeah, like he isn't always. Get out of my way before I kill you." Vegeta growled and charged up some energy in his palm, ready to strike.

"Oooh. I think it's time someone taught you a lesson in manners." The commander charged, flying quickly towards Vegeta and dodging the energy blast that Vegeta released towards him.

He came in under Vegeta's guard and struck him firmly in the face, sending him flying into the nearest wall, following that with a quick charge in. Vegeta, finding himself only lightly dazed from the strike, rolled quickly to one side and kicked his enemy while his enemy's fist was stuck in the wall. He chased his enemy, who had righted himself in the air and was now charging forward. They exchanged a handful of attacks and blocks until the commander grabbed both of Vegeta's wrists and flung him hard against the wall. He cried out.

"You foolish boy, did you really think you'd get away with this? We've been watching you." As he spoke, he repeatedly kneed the boy in the stomach, getting a yelp each time. "We know you like to make trouble. You think we didn't let you find them? You can't protect them..."

Vegeta coughed. "You think... this hurts? You think I don't get worse from Freiza _every single day_?" He broke the commander's hold and grabbed his wrist in turn, charging some energy in his hand. "But I am the prince! I _will_ fight! I _will _be strong! And _you can't break me!_" With that, he blasted the commander.

He let go of the body after grabbing the commander's scouter, watching it tumble to the ground. He checked... was the thing transmitting? Shit, yes, it was. Well, he'd deal with that when he came to it. He was still valuable to Freiza, he'd probably just get a severe beating out of it. In the meantime...

The sun was rising. As he watched it, he savoured his victory. He was sure of it, he was one step closer to finally beating Freiza, and freedom.


End file.
